Development management in Africa : the case of the agriculture analysis and planning project in Liberia

Although sector planning has not been institutionalized in the MOA, the projects have achieved limited success in key management areas; these include establishing a Statistics and Planning Division (SPD), training 50 MOA staff members in agricultural economics and statistics, and making the MOA's internal structure responsive to a sector planning approach. The projects also provided a base of support to the SPD at a time when such support could not be provided by the MOA. There is room for improvement, however. Data collection and analysis capabilities are weak and need continued support from technical advisors. Staff training, particularly in-country, needs to be continued to offset turnover. Further reorganization and development of effective management systems are needed to improve the MOA's performance. Nonetheless, the fact that the projects have had even limited success is noteworthy, given Liberia's severe economic problems during the past decade, the political instability resulting from the 1980 coup and its effect on the GOL's ministries, and Liberia's organizational culture and approach to public administration. The most serious current obstacles to improving the MOA's management capabilties are the country's severe fiscal crisis and the significant budget constraints it creates. Key lessons learned are: (1) sustainable data-related technologies must be simple and low-cost, but sufficient for basic information requirements; (2) the transfer of technology creates management demands which must be anticipated and used as criteria in selecting technical assistance; (3) technical assistance and training must be continuous to assure that gains made are not lost; (4) in-country training must be emphasized to minimize the disruption of agency operations; (5) necessary organizational changes must be anticipated; (6) advisors should provide quality control and staff support if the agency does not; and (7) project planning should be flexible.